I Met Him on the Interweb
by Sick Side Kick
Summary: Leon and Emil are both bloggers on tumblr, and with one post they make a deep long-distance connection.
1. Chapter 1

"My name is Xiang Wang. Most people can't pronounce that, so you can just call me Leon. I'm seventeen years old and my birthday is the first of July. I was born in Hong Kong, but I moved to England and lived there until about a year ago when I moved to Beijing, so I'm fluent in English, Cantonese, and I can speak a little Mandarin. I have a sister named Mei and a brother named Chio (but he's studying in Macau right now). I know this is a lot of unimportant trivia, but if you follow me you can ask even more unimportant things~!"

That was what I put under my "about page" when I first joined tumblr. Mei made an account before I did, so she was able to set everything up and get me about twenty followers to start off. She ran a fashion blog and had a semi-popular youtube channel, so she had over a thousand bloggers following her posts. She insisted that my url be chinesefather and made me a rad theme, and within a few days I had fifty followers from posting nothing but food and pandas. I didn't understand the big deal about tumblr at the time, but then again I was an instagram slave.

It wasn't until I started following people who would do "follow for follows" when I felt like I was getting up there in the world. I mean, I was studying business and statistics at the time, but the only social life I had came from my relatives or tumblr. After Mei yelled at me for not opening my ask box and had to do it for me, I gained about five more followers just by having conversations with them.

I decided to make my own post to gain followers. It said something along the lines of, "Follow me and I'll follow you back if you post Asian cuisine, Final Fantasy games, or European landscape" (actually I saved the post under a special tag so those were my exact words) and gave it a butt load of tags. I gained three follows, two of which were California based photographers. But the third is why I'm telling this story.

On June 5, 2013, radimmortal followed me.

His icon was of a platinum blonde teenager holding a stuffed puffin under his chin. I think it was snowing in the background. So he was pretty attractive looking so far, but what really got me were his eyes. They were some kind of violet color or something. I lived in Europe so I knew brown wasn't the only eye color to exist. I had never seen purple eyes though, and I thought he had some kind of disease (like how your eyes turn yellow if you have liver problems).

I followed him back as promised and checked out his blog to make sure he wasn't dieing. His sidebar said his name was Emil and he was sixteen and Icelandic. That was cool and all, and luckily he had an about page too. It said something like:

"I'm Emil from Iceland. You can learn more about me in exchange for five kilos of licorice per question."

Alright that didn't help. I decided to hit him up anyway with a simple "Hi, I'm Leon. This is stupid but are your eyes that color because you're sick with something? Its late here in China so I probs can't reply anytime soon, and if you want I can mail you that licorice ;)"

And since it was one in the morning I shut my laptop off and fell asleep for the night.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, I woke up to not one but two messages in my inbox. The first one was from someone asking for a promo (I deleted it) but the one below it made my heart sink. It was radimmortal's reply to my message from the night before, and it said:

"I can't tell if you're stupid or just plain retarded"

Okay, maybe my question was dumb. I could have easily looked up the answer on Wikipedia, but those words _hurt_. I felt like curling into a pity ball and crying over every embarrassing thing I'd ever said along with eating some noodles because I'm a hungry little shit. Mostly though I felt the need to reply back to explain everything. The ask went something like:

"Hey, sorry about my question. I live in China so everyone here has brown eyes. I lived in Europe at one point but the only other color I saw was green most of the time. Whatever the reason, your eyes are still pretty sick *badum tish*"

Iceland is about seven or so hours behind most of Asia, so I decided to grab some breakfast while I waited for Emil to wake up. With my heart now in my intestinal area, I rolled out of bed and threw a tee shirt on, scratching my stomach and waltzing into the kitchen.

Mei, my cousin Im Yong, Uncle Kiku, and my guardian Yao were already eating when I entered. Yao is the reason I speak perfect English due to him being whipped for a guy named Arthur (and that's why we were in England). Uncle Kiku is probably more like my grandfather because he's really wise and sometimes has problems going to the bathroom. Im had been freed from prison about a month before for stalking and had clearly ignored his restraining order to stay away from Yao for an entire year, plus he had been sleeping in our living room for a few days. Welcome to Wangville.

I mumbled a good morning and a yawn to everyone and grabbed a coconut baozi off of the middle of the table. As I bit into it, Mei pulled me practically into her lap and clawed my cheeks with her acrylic nails. "What time did you go to sleep last night?" she asked in between the irritated huffs of a premenstrual girl.

"Uh, like one," I replied, rubbing my bun in her face. She proceeded to make disgusting noises and push me off of her. Being the annoying younger brother I was, I laughed and Yao told me to knock it off. However, no one likes when Mei opens her mouth so this instigated him to start questioning _me_.

"Why were you up so late? Your bed time is ten on the weekends!"

I stuffed the remaining of my baozi into my mouth and choked out, "First of all, I'm seventeen. Second, I was...doing stuff for school."

Mei squinted her eyes at me. "What _kind _of stuff?" For an eighteen year old she was really good at acting like she was ten.

I swallowed my food. "Stuff for my calculus class you dumb-dumb. By the way, Im Yong, when are you leaving? The couch cushions are starting to smell like a small dick."

He dropped his jaw at that one and went to tug on Yao's shoulder and ignored my question. "But I love Uncle Yao! I can't stand to be away from him~!"

He stood up and pulled the teen off of him. "You really should leave. You don't want to go to jail again, do you?"

I left the room after that and went back to bed. It was true-I _was_ really tired. That message had me feeling some kind of way too. He seemed normal, so why would he tell me I'm stupid? Well, maybe he just had a bad day. Maybe...he was the Mei of his family...

Turns out I woke up around noon (three hours later). I didn't bother with lunch and instead went on tumblr. To my surprise Emil sent me another message.

"Sorry about what I sent you. I got into a fight with my brother and it made me pissy for the rest of the night. I didn't mean it, really. By the way thanks for the compliment."

So I was right about him having a shit day. I decided to ask if he wanted to talk about what happened with his brother (definitely not because I'm extremely nosy) and he sent me a fan mail message with all of the details.

All I can say is "Oh shit".


	3. Chapter 3

"I broke up with my girlfriend at the beginning of last week. We were together for almost two years and my family really liked her. I live with my brother Lukas, three uncles, and two of my cousins. I didn't tell them that we were done because, well, I feel embarrassed for the reason. Last night around seven my family and I had dinner and I was forced to sit next to Lukas. Towards the end of our meal my uncle Matt asked why they haven't seen much of Michelle, and I said it was because we broke up. It made Lukas mad and he started asking me why, and yelled about how I don't have any friends and how I'm antisocial.

My other uncles tried to get him to calm down, but I ended up slapping him in the face. Before I could apologize we were both dragging each other into the hallway and throwing punches at each other (I think he may have even bitten me). My uncle Berwald was able to get him off of me and I ran to my room and locked the door. When I saw your first message he was pounding at my door to let him in, and I just wanted him to go away so I could think of something witty to reply back. An hour later the noise stopped and I fell asleep around nine thirty, but the message I sent you made me wake up at four this morning because I felt the need to apologize. I'm so sorry, I usually don't say things like that. My English is mediocre too so I'm also apologizing for that. I plan on staying in my room all day so I'll be able to reply back quickly."

* * *

After reading his message, I felt like he could use some rice to ease himself. What I was really concerned about though was the fact that his brother reacted that way because of a girl! If I broke up with a boy I had been seeing for a few years my family would be comforting me and giving me ice cream (Well that's what I'm guessing. We always do that for Mei). I decided to just ask him if he was alright, though I was curious as to why he was single. Figuring he didn't want to talk about it, I complimented his English and changed the subject to how he was going to survive being in his room for the entire day.

"I have three packs of licorice under my bed and a private bathroom. I think I'm good," was his response.

We continued chatting back and forth about whatever crossed our minds. I learned that Emil's favorite animal was the puffin, he had just graduated school and is taking a year off before going to college, and he has two pets-a cat and the mentioned bird. I told him that my favorite animal was the panda, I was graduating in a few days, and Yao didn't let me have have animals. I loved the incoming pattern of his messages; mostly due to the fact that I could see more and more of his icon. Dear God he was attractive.

Before I knew it, Kiku was knocking at the wall next to my door to tell me dinner was ready. Supper at my house is always an event; our dining table has a rotating circle in the center called a Lazy Susan, and Yong and I are constantly spinning it every which way looking for a taste of everything. Whenever Chio comes home he just grabs my food for me because his arms are long enough to reach over to the opposite side and grab whatever. I swear, he's like a Chinese Slender Man.

I told Emil I would be back in less than an hour and shut my laptop off. The second I opened the sliding panel, I inhaled the scents of chicken chow mein, mandarin duck, steamed trout, and lotus leaf rice. Yes, I can distinguish the difference between each dish-like how white people know the difference between spaghetti and ziti from smelling it outside of their kitchen.

Entering the dining room, I sat between Mei and Yong. Kiku sat across from us and asked me, "Why were you in your room all day? It is beautiful outside, you should have gone for a walk and gotten fresh air!"

I grabbed a helping of rice and said, "My windows were open. I had to close them after a while though because the wind was blowing my homework around." Speaking of that, I really should have started some of it. Damn Tumblr. My sister glanced me a, 'That's bullshit' look and I stomped on her foot, making her jump. Luckily no one noticed.

"You're really trying to get the highest GPA aren't you?" Yong inquired as he stuffed chicken into his mouth. "You get out Wednesday, can't you slack a little?"

"Nah, the work just comes naturally to me. Its kind of hard not to do it because its so easy."

The rest of the meal was just Mei being Mei, Yong making fish fly out of his mouth, and Yao and Kiku interrogating me on what I was going to do over the summer. I told them I'd just be around, maybe even start a job somewhere.

I'm going to say it now, my summer was definitely interesting with the discovery of Emil.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time Wednesday came around, I had slept for about ten hours in total. I spent the rest of my hours talking to Emil, and even when he told me to go to sleep I stayed awake eating instant ramen and watching what he reblogged. I barely fit into my graduation robes and felt like Mei when she bloats. Time zones suck, y'know?

As expected, I had the highest GPA and was awarded valedictorian of my class. It didn't come as a surprise, mostly due to the fact that I attended everyday from primary to high school and had a superior memory ability. I probably should have slept for an extra hour though because I held back a few yawns during my speech. Yao almost flipped his shit when we threw our caps in the air because, "YOU MIGHT CATCH LICE AND I'M NOT HAVING THOSE PARASITES IN MY HOUSE, XIANG". I'm ninety-nine percent sure I heard him shout that the second it happened, too.

He also made me and the rest of the family take photos together. It doesn't _sound _like a bad idea, but I'm only a little bit over five feet tall while the rest of my family is almost six, and I get self conscious when we're all together. Yeah, even Mei is taller than me. I was too sleepy to argue though, so I stood in the middle of Kiku and Chio (he came home for the event) while Yao stood as far away from me as possible and Mei got a staff member to take the pictures. Yong apparently had a restraining order by the school so he couldn't come, but that was a good thing; he would have probably tried to flash the camera.

Yao and Kiku started preparing a giant feast for me the second we got home. I took this opportunity to help Mei upload the photos to her computer and transfer them to mine. Unfortunately, before giving me the newly loaded flash-drive she wanted to ask about my tumblr experience.

"Its fun, I already have a hundred fifty followers."

"Already? I made your blog like, four days ago!" She narrowed her eyes. "And I've noticed you've been reblogging a lot of things from a guy called radimmortal."

I crossed my arms. "Yeah, and?"

"Don't Icelandic people smell like fish?"

"I dunno. I'll ask for you if you want." I grabbed the flash-drive from her hand and ran off to my room.

The first thing I did was put the pictures on Facebook and change my cover photo. I guess you could say I'm an attention whore. I logged onto tumblr after and was greeted by a message from Emil saying, "Good morning! How was graduation?"

"It was good, but I feel like I had more than enough pictures taken."

He replied back a half hour later. "Not to sound like a pedophile, but can I see some of them? Also, I finally left my room and got a muffin and coffee."

I let out a laugh and looked at the computer's clock. It was probably around seven thirty in the morning where he was. "Yeah, sure."

I chose a picture of myself and Chio and put it in his submit box and said, "I'm the short one by the way."

He didn't reply for almost fifteen minutes. I started to feel nervous from what I learned about his brother, but when I decided to ask if he was alright he replied back, "Sorry, my uncle wanted me to help him with something."

"That's alright. So, what do you think of my beautimous face?"

"Pretty fucking ugly. Nah, I'm just kidding. You're better looking than I am."

I felt my face heat up at the compliment. 'Damn,' I thought. 'If he thinks I'm more attractive than him then he should really invest in a mirror.'

"You realize I'm the one with the robes on, right?"

"Yeah. Do you need to be the judge of my ugliness or something?"

Hot boy sending me pictures alert. "Do you have an instagram or something?"

"I only have facebook and tumblr. Do you want me to friend you?"

Oh my

"Yeah, sure. Its under Xiang Wang and I have one of the photos taken today as my cover."

I logged onto facebook and not a second later I had a friend request from Emil Bondevik. I'm going to take this moment and say that if God was against homosexuals, He wouldn't make such an attractive teenager to make this Asian one question his life choices. His profile picture was the same as his tumblr icon, but the rest of his pictures made him look like a model. Emil was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen, but it sucked that he was into girls. Eh, he wouldn't know if I wanted to lick his face unless I told him.

I switched back to tumblr and said, "You look like a freaking model, and a little bit like Gerard Way."

The annoying noise to alert me I had a message on facebook scared the shit out of me (I guess I forgot my volume was on). I wasn't surprised to see Emil had messaged me, but he had much more enthusiasm than the other messages I received in our conversations.

"WOW WOW WOW I LOVE MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE"

And that was when I felt butterflies in my stomach.


	5. Chapter 5

A few weeks passed and so did both of our birthdays (Emil's was June Seventeenth). I downloaded the tumblr app just to talk to him when I was away from the computer. Speaking of tumblr, I hit my 200 follower mark and hit post limit eight times. I also asked Emil for his phone number, and now when I'm not online I'm texting him.

Though it'd only been like, six weeks, I felt like I knew him my entire life. We talked about everything, from what it's like in our countries to the Kardashian family (he didn't know who they were! I had to explain them to him!) Turns out, Iceland doesn't have fast food restaurants or Starbucks, so he's never eaten at McDonald's or drank mocha cappuccinos. He mentioned some of the food they _do _eat, like sheep heads and stuffed stomachs or something like that. I figured it wasn't any different from Asian food, though he thought it was weird that I ate a tarantula once in Vietnam.

Scanning through these messages, I realized that I was reading them in a Chinese voice. I wanted to hear him speak, but if I said, "Can I hear your voice?" to a straight man he would have been freaked out. After a nap, I opened my laptop and asked Emil if he had skype. Thanks to the High Heavens, he said he indeed did and we exchanged information.

I'll be honest and say being nervous was an understatement. Over the past few weeks, I had started to fancy him and I had mini heart attacks whenever he sent me a message. I couldn't even look at his pictures without popping boners (personal, I know). He was just so...hot. Of course I would never admit to liking him in that way, I mean having a crush on a guy half-way around the world wasn't harmful, it was just for fun. No one would have to know.

Until I answered his skype call.

Emil sat at a desk with a red headset on. He had a stoic expression and was wearing this weird turtleneck thing. I looked past him for a second and noticed that his room was larger than mine by a lot; it was like the size of my living room, and that's fairly big without Yong's shit all over the floor.

He caught my gaze and looked behind his chair, only to awkwardly turn back with scarlet cheeks. I was on my bed, so I huddled my knees in case anything decided to 'jump out' while we were talking.

I also noticed that our cameras were completely different, his having a fishbowl effect that made me feel like I could reach out and touch him, whereas mine was shitty and a Chinese ripoff. His hand adjusted his screen a little bit, and after a complete minute of silence he muttered, "Hey there. Sorry my English isn't the best. I won't be offended if you need me to repeat something."

Dear Lord Almighty, his accent was perfect.

The awkwardness was able to end when I said the same thing to him, and we spoke to each other casually and continued our previous conversation about Angelina Jolie's forehead vein. Just because I lived in England for some time didn't mean my Cantonese accent magically disappeared. It was still pretty thick, kind of like my eyebrows.

We laughed, insulted each other, and gossiped until Emil's windows became dark. I looked at the time and noticed that it was two in the morning. I stifled out a yawn right when his bedroom door was pushed open, and two boys ran in with a dog behind them. The taller one shouted something in their language and Emil shouted something back, making both of them leave the room without closing the door. He turned back to me and told me he had to go eat dinner while the dog attempted to jump into his lap.

"Can we continue after I finish?" he inquired, pursing his lips. I screenshot it without his knowledge. Why? His lips looked soft and kissable.

"Well, it may or may not be almost three o'clock here."

"Oh." He bit his bottom lip. "Tomorrow? Or some other time?"

I gave him a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I like seeing you!"

"Well, bye!" Emil gave me a little wave and logged off.

I would have never known how shy he was until that night. It was cute though, seeing him become flustered, scratch the back of his head before starting a new topic, even rolling up his shirt sleeves (I learned that it was called a lopapeysa) made me blush and squeal. I couldn't help myself, and I shut down my computer, got myself under the covers, and rolled around and quietly screamed into a pillow. Yeah, I know that sounds lame, but the last time I did something like that was when I first heard about Jackie Chan.

* * *

We spoke via video camera for about a month and a half after, or until the middle of September. I read somewhere once that it takes four months to fall in love with someone. It had only been three, but I was head-over-heels for Emil.

I didn't tell my family about him. No one ever thought it was weird that I was barely off of my phone or out of my room, but even when I didn't even know what tumblr was I stayed isolated. I didn't even think they knew about the million empty ramen cups under my bed, most of which I collected while tumblring. Besides, they thought I was straight and taunted me about not having a girlfriend.

Like I've said before, Mei is nosy, so I wasn't surprised when she stood in the frame of my bedroom door before lunch one day and didn't let me out until I agreed to tell her about radimmortal. Seriously though, girls must smell out these kind of things. I complied and told her about him because honestly, I needed help. I had officially fallen in love with a straight guy and I didn't know what to do. My sister's good with advice, so she told me to just tell Emil how I felt and that it wouldn't ruin our friendship.

At the time I thought she was out of her mind. You can't love someone while being friends with them, could you? Well, I had a skype appointment with the Icelandic within the next half hour, so I decided to check my dashboard and _maybe _follow her advice. I was still mainly a food blog, but incorporated Japanese and Cantonese fashion, so besides Emil (who posted European scenery and video game fandoms) I had unfollowed the people I followed-back in the beginning and always knew that I wouldn't scroll past anything weird, besides an occasional butt or two.

What I didn't expect was Emil reblogging a gifset of two white guys fucking each other senseless. I was taken aback for a moment and thought that it must have been some kind of joke. I scrolled down however and saw that he tagged it as "nsfw" and "yum". The last time I was that confused was when Kiku fell down the stairs and landed on top of me.

I savored the post as I waited for him to call me online. My hand was halfway down my boxers when I heard the obnoxious ringing and I pulled it out to answer, huddling my knees up to my chin.

The conversation started out as it normally did, with both of us saying 'Hello' and 'How are you?'. I felt my heart rate increase and I finally blurted out, "So I saw that you reblogged some nice men."

If Emil was as anxious as I was, he wasn't showing it. Instead in the calmest tone I had ever heard, he replied, "You mean the porn gifs?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Well it's probably because I like guys."

I felt my chest about to break open from how hard my heart was working. "...Really? I...thought you liked girls?"

"And I like men."

I heard rockets go off in my head, followed by a light bulb. "You like boys, I like boys. What a coincidence!"

"Are you asking me out?"

I was chopstick-length close to exploding and turning into confetti. "Only if you want me to."

For the first time out of his facebook pictures, I saw him grin. He sighed and let out a nervous giggle. "Then I guess we're dating."


	6. Chapter 6

*****Hello! I'm so glad this story is getting so much love! This chapter is going to contain mature content. If you don't want to read it, you can skip to the end and I'll summarize it*****

* * *

My family wasn't happy with me being in a relationship.

Actually, they were unaware I was in one. The only person I told was Mei, and I made her promise that she wouldn't tell anyone. To be honest, it wasn't that I didn't want them knowing, it was just that Yao and Kiku are ignorant to the internet and think everyone online is a forty year old pervert. I had been dating Emil for about a month, and they had been already holding a grudge on me because I didn't enroll in college and become a mini Chio. Hell, they didn't even know I was gay!

Emil was my first boyfriend, and all I wanted was to be wrapped in his arms. The most we could do without looking stupid on screen is blow each other kisses whenever we logged on or off, but I _needed_ to see him to feel like he was really there and not just at a computer in another country, and I always became upset when the realization hit that he really was thousands of miles and a continent away. One of our conversations however gave me an amazing idea as to how we could make our relationship feel genuine.

We started talking about stupid things we've done in the past. It started off simple with things like falling off of a stone wall into a river and running around London in just shorts. The conversation started to get a little sexual, and Emil had admitted to wanking to my pictures; that was why he was gone for fifteen minutes when I sent him my graduation photo. With a family that doesn't understand personal space, I didn't have too many stories to tell, but he was filled to the brim with tales involving his penis, fingers, and mouth. Since we were opening up to each other, I decided to take that moment to announce that he was turning me on; I had a growing erection that needed tending to, but I wanted to stay with him for a little while longer. He replied with,

"I'm horny too, you want to do something?"

"I want to jack off if that's what you mean."

"No, I mean do you want to do something on camera?"

I scanned my brain and rapidly went through the members of my family. Yong went back to jail, Mei was out shopping, Kiku was at his yoga class until that evening, Chio went back to school, and Yao was busy opening his new tea shop in another town, so I was home alone and no one could walk in on us.

"Yeah, let's do it!"

Emil backed away from his desk and carried his laptop over to the end of his bed. I backed away from the webcam to give myself more room, and I waited for him to get adjusted while trying to sit on his pillows.

"Have you ever done this before?" he asked when he finally settled.

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Alright, let me guide you through this. Remove your shirt."

I lifted my tee shirt over my head and threw it to the side. Emil gave me a surprised look and he hesitantly did the same. "I didn't know you worked out," he muttered, and I saw his porcelain features turn pink.

It had been a while, but I occasionally practiced martial arts and lifted weights. I didn't think my abs were that noticeable, but they must have been compared to his slightly pudgy tummy. "Thanks...What now?"

"Remove your pants and underwear."

I did as I was told and I felt my cock free from its restraints. It was my turn to blush when he pulled off his boxers; his penis was larger than mine by what seemed to be a few inches, and I had the stereotypically small Chinese dick. Before I could say something, Emil said he wanted to take me in his mouth, and he started to stroke himself. I was instructed to do the same, and the only audible sounds in my room were our moans.

He gradually started to lie down and watch me as I paused to find a bottle of lube under my bed. I only had it in case I wanted to 'borrow' one of Mei's dildos, but this time I covered my fingers in it and stuck them inside of myself. I tilted my head back and tried to find my prostate as I whispered his name, but the whispering became louder as I began to ghost over it. I had been practicing this action for years, and I made sure to position myself so all Emil could see were my cock and ass.

I couldn't see him and I only knew that he was probably close to finishing, but instead of moaning my name, I heard him scream, "Leon, stop!"

I took my fingers out and faced the camera. Emil was looking to the side with a horrified expression and was saying something in Icelandic to an unknown person. I heard a door close, and Emil turned to me and said, "That was Lukas and my uncle Matthias. They just ran in on us."

I started to laugh for some unknown reason, and he started freaking out because, "WAS I REALLY THAT LOUD? OH MY GOD OH MY GOD THAT'S THE THIRD TIME I'VE BEEN CAUGHT DOING THAT THIS YEAR!"

When both of us calmed down we were in no mood to continue what we were doing, so we decided to just talk. He had put on a pair of sweatpants and told me that he was going to tell his family that he liked boys, but now he didn't have to because Matthias probably told everyone in the house by now. Also, he told them that I was his boyfriend, and Lukas wanted to meet me. We agreed on a day for his family to talk to me on skype, and I told him that I could get my family to do it too.

I just had to tell them who Emil was first.

* * *

Summary: Leon's family doesn't know about Emil, the boyfriends talk about things they've done, they start having sex on camera, Matthias and Lukas walk in and want to meet Leon.


	7. Chapter 7

I came out as homosexual to my family the next evening at dinner. It was partially Mei's fault, actually; she wanted to hear about everyone's week since it was a Friday, and we told our stories in a circle around the table. Kiku said something about the nearby grocery store having a deal on tapioca, Yao mentioned that we were going to be working for him at his tea shop (because I _definitely_ wanted to be near my family more than I was already forced to be) and Mei went on for about ten minutes about making new friends at the mall. When it was my turn, I stood up and exclaimed,

"I am in a relationship!"

The three of them dropped their chopsticks and stared at me. "Really? Who's the lucky girl?" My sister inquired.

I sat back down and crossed my arms. "Actually, she's a he. I'm gay."

Kiku quirked a brow while my guardian's went upwards. "How long have you been together? And...how long have you known?"

"Around three months, and since I was like, eight years old."

Yao, who I have to say was the 'overprotective mother' member of the group, surprisingly gave me a grin and asked why I hadn't brought him over yet.

I started to cringe involuntarily. "Well, he lives far away."

"Where?"

"Iceland." I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for Yao to chew me out.

Remember when I said he was whipped for a guy in England? I should probably explain the situation; This guy named Arthur Kirkland came to Hong Kong for a business trip a few years ago, and he and Yao fell in love. I was young at the time, so I didn't have a problem when he decided to bring me and Mei to London to stay in his house for a while. After a few years, Yao proposed (or maybe Arthur did. The story's unclear and he doesn't like talking about it) and the other freaked out, leading to us moving to Beijing and him hating the western world, _especially _Europe. It also made him a little racist towards white people.

He stood up with caution and I did the same. "You know how I feel about that part of the world..."

"I know, but-"

"How did you meet him?"

Mei chimed in. "Is it that guy from tumblr?"

"From what?"

I sighed and gave him the 'you're elderly' treatment. "The interweb. I met him on the interweb!"

Yao started to walk around the table and towards me as I accidentally stepped back into a corner of the room. "What have I told you about talking to strangers online?"

"But he's not a stranger!"

"How do you know he's not a forty year old pervert?"

"I've seen him before! We've skyped-"

He punched the wall next to me. "I'm going to cut off your internet access if you keep talking to that ghost!"

That was the angriest I had ever seen Yao become. Usually in a situation like this I would either fake cry or respect his wishes, but the way he was speaking about Emil stabbed me in the heart. I felt genuine tears fall from my eyes as he continued to shout at me.

I mustered up some courage and told him to fuck off. He was shoved out of the way, and I ran to my room and locked my door. I jumped onto my bed and started to sob as I heard Yao's voice echo through my walls about how he knows what 'the interweb' is and to not treat him like an old man.

A moment later, Kiku and Mei wanted to know if they could come in. I unlocked the door for them and shut it behind them in case my guardian decided to barge in and lecture me for another three hours. By then my tears had begun to dry and my nose became stuffy, but fortunately they just wanted to ask me some questions about Emil.

They sat down on either side of me on my bed and rubbed my back for a few minutes before the hand on my right side stopped.

"Do you want to talk about your boyfriend? I don't think we even caught his name."

I told them about Emil; how he was seventeen, how his favorite color was gray, how he had never been to Starbucks, how he had beautiful violet orbs, how he liked indie and alternative music, and a lot more useless information that I had gathered. I had even pulled out my phone and showed them pictures I had saved from his facebook.

Upon seeing one of his photos, my uncle mentioned that Emil was cute and that I really _was_ lucky to meet someone like him, even if it was only on my laptop and phone. "The world is changing and I'm starting to believe that you can find connections anywhere."

"Yeah, and you _must_ be in love because you swore at Yao!" My sister giggled before wrapping me into a hug, chanting, 'Xiang loves Emil!' repeatedly.

"I would have never guessed that you liked boys," Kiku uttered, taking me by astonishment. I answered with, "Really? I thought it was pretty obvious with the Jackie Chan posters I have in my room!"

The leech around my torso sat up. "I suspected you were gay! I just didn't know if you actually were..."

We sat in silence for a few minutes. As much as I hated being around my family, it was times like that I would want to go back to. My mind wandered, and I made the realization that Yao was in love at one point too, and he probably felt like I was going to run away and make the same mistake he did with Arthur. Maybe it wasn't Europe he disliked, maybe it was just the possibilities it held both in the past and present. I probably thought about it too much, but it helped me make the decision to apologize to him the next morning before breakfast.

"Will he really shut the internet off?" I asked Kiku.

"No, he can't even figure out how to plug in a dvd player. He'll probably just move the internet icon into the recycling bin and feel accomplished."

"Good." I bounced to my feet and turned towards both of them with enthusiasm. "I'm meeting Emil's family tomorrow on skype and I want you two to join me! I'll see if Yao wants to see him too!"

Their mouths gawked open. "What an honor! We'll definitely do it!" Mei hugged me again and left the room. My uncle stood up and nodded before following her. "I can't wait to be properly introduced."


End file.
